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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Crock-Pot Greek-Style Beef Stew

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...As you know, stifado is a Greek stew. It can be made with rabbit, hare or beef and it's slowly simmered with a quantity of onions until the cubed meat is meltingly tender. The stew is both sweet and sour and is fairly unique in the spices that are used to flavor it. The dish I'm featuring tonight is Greek-like. I would never claim it to be authentic and I don't want to become embroiled in arguments waged by those who believe theirs to be the definitive stew. I've combined stew meat, pearl onions and tomatoes in a slow cooker and seasoned them with cinnamon, allspice and cloves to produce a stew that becomes Greek-like when topped with feta cheese and walnuts. This is a no fuss dinner and once the meat and onions have been browned, it is a meal that takes care of itself. The recipe I used was was developed by Lynn Alley, and the only change I've made to it, is to use a bit more garlic and add a small amount of vinegar at the end of cooking. Those of you who love to use the crock-pot or slow cooker will love this recipe. Those of you who do not can achieve the same results by braising the stew in a 250 degree F. oven for 6 to 7 hours, or until the meat is fork tender. Either way, you'll have a wonderful family meal that is delicious when served with rice and a salad. The recipe calls for a bouquet garni. Remember you can use a coffee filter rather than cheesecloth to hold the herbs and spices in place. Here's the recipe.

I must say I've never heard of stifado. But I have made a few greek style dishes, like pastichio (don't know if I spelled that right). This one looks good. I'm glad to see you doing some slow cooker dishes! It's time to wash mine and start using it again.

Stifado is one of my favorite traditional meals. I just love the boldness of this dish. Mary your stew may not follow the true recipe to T, but it looks great and from the ingredients I can understand it tastes great as well. After all, food is all about the feelings it creates and the senses it arouses, authenticity follows and frankly to me has little importance.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and for your lovely comment! I'm so touched and honored!

I'm thrilled to try this recipe - it sounds delicious and I love any excuse to try a new, scrumptious slow cooker recipe! :-) I'm especially excited about your clever tip to use a coffee filter for the bouquet garni - thank you so much!

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